I'm new to bass and don't know a lot about gear and stuff, but I'm in a sludge/doom/black metal band, and was just wondering any tips (gear/tuning wise/settings) for the most crushing dirty bass tone possible.

I'm new to bass and don't know a lot about gear and stuff, but I'm in a sludge/doom/black metal band, and was just wondering any tips (gear/tuning wise/settings) for the most crushing dirty bass tone possible.

I've found low mids to be my nemesis in most cases. Nothing makes my speaker clip in a way I hate worse. Get that frequency into submission and you should be able to better hear the crush over the mud. Kill it too much and the tone can lose "balls". If your amp has stock distortion, try using it. Unless it's total shit, blending it with a moderate pedal can help fuzz.

If you're new to playing as well as bass: practice more than you want to/louder is not necessarily better.

I'm new to bass and don't know a lot about gear and stuff, but I'm in a sludge/doom/black metal band, and was just wondering any tips (gear/tuning wise/settings) for the most crushing dirty bass tone possible.

Your neck pickup is your friend. Bridge pup has too much treble, so roll that down.

One thing I noticed the bassist in Sleep/Om doing is instead of playing with his thumb anchored on the neck pup, he anchored his thumb on the neck at around the 15th fret. Tried it myself, tone is insanely thick and meaty. If fret slaps are your thing, I've found they suit sludge and stoner doom really well.

Tuning down a step will sound thicker, obviously. Go for thick strings, as low an action as possible without fret buzz or sounding too slack. 5 string one step down would be ideal for what you're playing.

I'd recommend you get a EHX Muff or really any organic sounding fuzz for a nice loose, ballsy, low-end heavy dirt that can handle a low B or A.

15" speakers are your friend. 10 and 12" have a tight, bright sound which is handy but doesn't seem like what you're looking for.

Don't change your strings too often. A bit of finger sweat in them gives them a nice warmth that's missing from new strings.

Chorus pedal thickens up your tone hugely.

There's no real rule with regards to pick vs fingerstyle. Fingerstyle should be better in theory, but with enough low-end you can have the punch of a pick without the trebley harmonics.

Don't cut out mids or trebles completely, EVER. You'll be inaudible in a mix under guitars and cymbals. Try to find a range (preferably bass) and throw that up high, then have mids and lows at either 3 o clock, 12 o clock or 9 o clock, or whatever combination of those. You'll be bottom heavy but still have enough punchy mids to fit yourself into the mix nicely.

I have a quick question about tuning up. I have a five string bass with medium gauges strings (DR .045, .065, .085, .105, .125). How safe is it to tune the highest four strings up a step (for Drop B)? Or a half-step from there up to Drop C?

Related, how does truss rod adjustment work? (The actual physical process and how to know when its at the right point)

Tuning up the highest 4 strings should not be a problem although you might have to adjust you truss rod. Due to mistuning I have played tuned up 5 frets when I just began playing and the only problem I encountered was a breaking G string as the strings got older and didn't have the elasticity they have when they are new.

Truss rod adjustment depends upon the kind of truss rod that is installed in the bass guitar. Single rods are used to straighten the neck from the tension the strings enforce which causes the neck to bend forward a little. Dual truss rods can be used to move the neck both away from the strings as well as towards the neck.The right point is determined by several factors like string buzz and comfortability.

Any recommendations for a bass that handles tuning down (Open B) well and in the 400 or so dollar range?

I did something Like that. my last band played in drop A (absolutely ridiculous by the way. but they were young guys who wanted to be BR00TAL!) so they told me to get .130 size strings. they work fine but if you are playing in another higher tuning with other songs, you may want to head down lo your local pawn shop/ebay and buy some cheap piece of crap that you can have for another tuning

I play a 4-string and the tunings of my band are either 1 tone lower, drop C, and drop A. The only thing to do is to get a set for lower tunings (like I did) or get a 5-string set and don't use the G. You'll have to adjust the truss rod action, maybe change your string spacing/height a bit, and after all is done, set your intonation correctly.

I've been playing on a Peavy Headliner 600 with a Peavy 4 x 10 cab for a few years. The cab doesn't fit in my cat's trunk by an inch. I'm asking if there are any cabs that are 17 inches or less in dimension (front to back measurement of the cab).

Hello everyone, I recently joined the site, so I thought I'd introduce myself to the bass thread. I've been a bass player for 6 years now. I love to learn and play bass lines of various genres and styles, but I tend to mostly enjoy prog rock (Rush, Yes, Kansas), heavy metal (usually Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, etc), thrash metal, and funk. I've also played in multiple bands who play these genres, including my own. I'm a P-bass freak and my main bass is my Fender 60th Anniversary Precision, I've also got an 80's Peavey Fury P and an 80's Charvel CSM 2-B PJ. So anyways, like I said, thought I'd introduce myself. lml

EDIT: The year is 2016. Bass players are all but extinct. Those who play this four stringed variant are few and far between, and it seems like they all have left this website.

EDIT May 6th: Come on!! Am I the only bass player left!? Are you all dead!? Sheeeeesh.

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UltraBoris wrote:

In short... the universe is a midget, and this album rapes it so hard that Stephen Hawking learns how to walk again. And that's all I have to say about that.

Bassists who play in bands with heavy guitars, do you prefer to go for a super low boomy, woofy tone, or something that sits more in the mid range? Do you like having that thunderous, earthquakey tone, or something a bit clearer and tighter?

As with any individual element in a mix, it all depends on the context. Most creative production decisions will be made similarly, and to get where you want to sound you have to have some sort of anchor around which every other sound is sculpted. For a lot of metal bands, this anchor tends to be the basic guitar tone. Of course one may start with the bass or even the vocals.

So the simple version of the answer is I prefer whatever will complement the overall sound I'm going for.

Bassist of almost 4 years here, looking to move into the wonderful and exciting world of heads and cabs when I've got the chance/funds/space.

I've done some browsing on this but seek a more personal touch (and will surely be checking TalkBass) - what do you folks recommend in a solid, reasonably versatile, reasonably priced head? (Under 600 I'm thinking?)

Edit: Also, is it accurate that cab output should be at least as much wattage as the head?

My Hartke 500 watt and twin 4x10 Hartke cabs were around the price range you just specified, and it's the best setup I've ever played on. I got the head and one of the 4x10's for 250 bucks. Not too expensive, and gives a freakin' ton of tone. The head is the HA5500 and it is both solid state and with a tube, and a volume for each. When I want to play something more restrained I can play just solid state, but when I'm playing some prog or metal, I crank the tube up and let it scream. It's quite versatile, and I can get all sorts of tones. Basically what I'm trying to say is, Hartke freaking rules. If you can get your hands on a Hartke head, do it. You also can't go wrong with Ampeg, but I've never had the luxury of owning one, only been able to play on them here and there.

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UltraBoris wrote:

In short... the universe is a midget, and this album rapes it so hard that Stephen Hawking learns how to walk again. And that's all I have to say about that.

It depends on what you want out of it. Engl, for instance, makes Bass heads these days that are not too expensive and they are also not heavy while giving enough power. If you intend to have something that you have to haul everywhere go for something light. A 4x10 cabinet sounds great but they can be heavy. 2 2x10 cabinets give the same power but with better portability.For Wattage I would say that it's better to have some headroom in the wattage of your cabinet, so the cabinet should be able to handle more wattage than the amplifier can provide. Remember that if you play in a band you should consider the wattage the Guitar player(s) can throw at you and at least double that. A 100 Watts Marshall or Mesa should be met with at least 200 Watts of Bass amplification. The lower tones need more power to be amplified audibly.

Question for other bassists in here, what are your favorite strings? Over time I've figured out what companies I hate and what companies I love, and I'm wondering what some other people might swear by.

Also, does anybody play strictly with flats? I'm not the type of bass player that would use flats, as I prefer an aggressive punchy sound, but I'm curious about putting some on my 80's Charvel. The pickups in it shat the bed on me, so I put in the Geezer Butler EMG PJ set, and they sound AWESOME, but so far I'm having trouble finding a string that'll do the trick just right on that bass. I'm thinking about putting flats on it, but I want the most aggressive and tone providing flats possible. Any suggestions? I've played on two sets of flats in my lifetime - Roto 77's which were really awesome, but they were on a bass that I didn't play much, and I had a set of LaBella Deep Talkin' Flats, which were too mellow for my tastes.

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UltraBoris wrote:

In short... the universe is a midget, and this album rapes it so hard that Stephen Hawking learns how to walk again. And that's all I have to say about that.

I've had flatwounds on in the past, it's a whole other world. Cool, buit not quite for me in various ways. I swore by Ernie Ball for a while (Regular slinky), but currently am loving my GHS Bass Boomer mediums (45 to 105).

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Count Dirt Nap on DragonForce wrote:

What happened to their old vocalist? Did he move SOOOO FAAAAAR AWAAAAYYYYY?

I've had flatwounds on in the past, it's a whole other world. Cool, buit not quite for me in various ways. I swore by Ernie Ball for a while (Regular slinky), but currently am loving my GHS Bass Boomer mediums (45 to 105).

Ernie Balls are what I use on all of my guitars, but I have only used them once on bass. I put them on my Alvarez 5 string, and I don't play 5's, so I rarely play that bass. Would you recommend snagging a set for one of my main basses? They're affordable which is nice. The GHS bass boomers really shocked me when I first got them. I can get them for 5 bucks, so I was expecting them to be crappy, but I've had nothing but good experiences with them.

I've gone through a few companies over the years. My first 5 or 6 sets were Dunlop's (I got them because Les Claypool uses them haha), and they were great, but not exactly what I was looking for. Then I went to Rotosound, the original roundwound bass string, and holy fudge they are the growliest, most badass sounding string I've ever played. Referring to the Swing Bass 66 set that Geddy and Chris Squire used. Then I tried the Dean Markley taper core SR5000's, which were right up there with the Swing Bass 66's in terms of the holy-fudge-this-sounds-really-good factor, but they don't last as long. Most recently, I tried the DR black Beauty coated set, and they are the longest lasting set of strings I've ever tried EVER. My main bass that I play daily had those strings on it for 3 MONTHS without them dying. Then I eventually broke a string on it They sound amazing too.

There's only two sets of strings I've had big issues with. One of them, ironically, is a Rotosound string. It's the Solo Bass 55 set. I actually thought that my beloved Charvel bass was shitting the bed on me when I had those on it, but it was actually due to the ridiculously high tension of those strings. Higher than your average set of flats. Makes playing quite hard, don't buy those. Ever. Buy the Swing Bass 66 set, it's arguably the best sounding bass string I've ever played, next to the DR black beauties and the Dean Markley SR5000.

The other strings I've had problems with would be anything made by Daddario. In my opinion, they make the worst bass strings on planet earth. They take so much out of your tone and are insanely tinny sounding. I hate them so much. I've tried lots of their strings too, they just irk me.

Anybody else tried the same sets that I've had? Anything cool I should try? Has anybody had ever tried Thomastik-Infeld strings? The ones that are like 70+ dollars for a single set? I'm wondering if those are really as great as people say.

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UltraBoris wrote:

In short... the universe is a midget, and this album rapes it so hard that Stephen Hawking learns how to walk again. And that's all I have to say about that.

If you are into Rotos I would recommend the Nexus. They used to have the spacer/silver spacer which were the first black coated strings then they became silver. Then they were discontinued but now they are back as the Nexus and they are Black again and the current set is on my main bass for almost 2 years now and they still don't sound dulled or whatever...

Question for other bassists in here, what are your favorite strings? Over time I've figured out what companies I hate and what companies I love, and I'm wondering what some other people might swear by.

Warwick Red. The absolutely best strings I've ever tried. I've been playing for 16 years now, and after many years of trying different brands, I stumbled upon those about 2 years ago and absolutely fell in love with those. Those have EXACTLY the *SAME* sound I've always looked for in a string. They last for ages, and keep their "new" tone for a really long time. And they're not that pricy! Also, they sound AMAZING no matter if you play with your fingers or play with a pick. I really wish I could have found those before!